If you are looking for affordable but reliable hosting, then both Bluehost and Hostinger have probably caught your eye. These entry-level hosts both offer a range of hosting plans, features, and functionality at low prices, and are great options for those who own small blogs and business sites.
Bluehost
Bluehost shared hosting plans offer a range of impressive features and tools. These plans are aimed at website owners who are setting up or already running small to medium-sized blogs and websites:
Unlimited websites and storage (not available on the low-tier Basic plan)
Unmetered bandwidth
Free domain (for the first year)
One-click WordPress installation
Free SSL certificate (Let’s Encrypt)
Easy WordPress staging sites
$200 Marketing Credits with Google Ads and Bing Ads
The Shared plans from Bluehost have lots to offer. It is particularly worth noting the ‘unlimited resources’ that are offered on all plans (other than the low-tier Basic package). This includes unlimited websites, storage, and bandwidth – ideal for those hosting multiple sites.
Hostinger
Hostinger’s shared plans are a little cheaper than the Bluehost packages (we will cover pricing further on in this article). However, this is reflected in the features provided – if you want a plan with similar features to those offered by Bluehost then you will need to opt for the top-tier Hostinger WordPress plan:
99.9% uptime guarantee
Free site migration (Bluehost does not offer free migrations)
Free domain
Unlimited bandwidth (excluding the low-tier Single plan)
One-click WordPress install
Daily backups
Free SSL (on the top-tier Business plan)
The free site migration service, as well as the 99.9% uptime guarantee, are the real standout features here. So, if you are running a few small but important sites, then Hostinger may be just what you need, ensuring your sites are well looked after and consistently up and running.
Selecting a user-friendly host, that has a quick and easy website setup process, and an intuitive dashboard, is an important factor to take into consideration when choosing a web host.
Luckily, both Bluehost and Hostinger are extremely easy to get to grips with. Let’s have a closer look at their ease of use…
The performance of a web host is one of the most important aspects to consider when choosing a hosting provider. If your website is slow to load, or repeatedly suffers downtime, not only will your visitor numbers be affected, but crucially you will lose leads and sales. Poor performance can also affect your site’s SEO, making it harder for your content to gain exposure to a wider audience.
Here we set up two new test websites, one hosted with Bluehost and one with Hostinger. We then tested the loading times of these sites, using the online monitoring tool Pingdom. Here are the results…
Bluehost:
Washington D.C.: 2.75 s
San Francisco: 2.86 s
London: 3.43 s
Sydney: 3.73 s
Tokyo: 2.87 s
Hostinger:
Washington D.C.: 0.829 s
San Francisco: 1.06 s
London: 0.484 s
Sydney: 2.26 s
Tokyo: 1.92 s
As you can see, in these tests Hostinger provided a faster service, loading the website it hosted much faster than the Bluehost hosted site.
Both Bluehost and Hostinger have much to offer, each with their own pros and cons.
To summarize, if you are looking for bargain prices and fast loading times, then Hostinger is your best option.
However, if you want unlimited resources (bandwidth, storage, and websites) or superior support, then Bluehost is for you.